Stargate Wiki:Neutral point of view

This page is an official policy of Semantic Stargate Wiki.This policy is considered by the community and its leadership to be the status quo of Semantic Stargate Wiki and is not to be countermanded or ignored, though changes to it can be discussed on the appropriate talk page.

Semantic Stargate Wiki's neutral point-of-view (or NPOV) states that editors should write articles on subject matter related to the characters, places, and events of the show as if they were a reporter that "lives" in the Stargate universe, stating the facts as best as possible with little to no interpretation, opinion or other subjective commentary.

Most of Semantic Stargate Wiki's articles chronicle characters, situations, and principles in a work of fiction. As such, as with the people, places and events of the real-world Earth, interpretation is likely and natural as part of the entertainment value of the Stargate series and other official derivative works.

However, it is important that editors do not assert an opinion or an interpretation of an event as fact. On Semantic Stargate Wiki, violations of the neutral point-of-view often occur when a contributor writes a contribution in the form of a review or essay, where the comments are personalized by the contributor and appear to have a single, polarized voice on a subject.

A good article that adheres to the neutral point-of-view should:

Write the article as if the characters, situations are "real". Again, pretend you are a reporter with omniscience that allows you to "see" and therefore document everything that happens to the characters of the Stargate universe.

Let the facts speak for themselves. Don't add your opinion to the article, just the facts in a chronological or episodic manner that allows a reader to draw their own conclusions.

Limit or entirely avoid descriptions, analogies, comparisons, contrasts, or references to real-world history or people, places and things.

Remember that, as a work of fiction, the facts will be incomplete. Do not attempt to fill in the gaps with your own subjective interpretations if there are no aired facts to support it. That's "fanwanking". Just report what can be reported. If there are logical or plausible connections revealed but not fully explained in the show as yet, you can use derived content guidelines to flesh out the connections.

Always note the sources for the article through links to related articles, particularly episode summaries, podcasts, and other official sources per the wiki's citation policy.

An example of violating a NPOV is drawing a conclusion about a character's motivations. It isn't appropriate to say, for instance, that Apophis or even the Wraith is evil. The best way to document their intentions is to chronicle their actions in the articles and cite your sources. The facts tell the story to the reader neutrally, allowing the reader to form their own opinion and not to base their opinion on your own.

Any articles on cast, crew or other real-world contributions of the show itself can and should be written differently, using the real-world point-of-view, where you can write in detail about the show without pretending that what you see is "real."